So now that you have the pitches you created yourself or from importing the MIDI file as shown as in the previous step. After you created the pitch, you could clearly see that they’ve filled the lyrics section with a bunch of “a”. So you could play it and hear your VOCALOID says “a” with the pitches (he/she would sound like he/she’s humming the song), and if you’re happy with that, the next step is to enter the lyrics. The Japanese VOCALOID would accept romaji, hiragana or katakana. It will NOT accept kanji. To enter the lyrics, it’s pretty straight forward. Either double click on one of the pitch lines and type it, or right click on any of the pitch lines and select “Enter lyrics…”, and then enter the lyrics into the window that appears. And then you’re done! Click play to check if your VOCALOID can sing it properly.

If you don’t have the Japanese fonts and the ability to type Japanese on your computer, you don’t have to worry about it. Remember, the VOCALOID editor can accept romaji lyrics, so you can just type using the english keyboard without a special thing. Unless if you want to type in hiragana, I would probably make a tutorial on how to install the Japanese writing system later on. But if you want to type in romaji, read on…

Here’s another explanation video from Crypton.
[MEDIA=2]
Note: If you couldn’t view the video above, be sure that you’ve already installed the Adobe Flash Player.

And there you have it! Now your VOCALOID is singing! It’s that easy! Now what’s left is just the tuning part (and maybe make some PV if you’re planning to upload it into a video sharing site such as Nico Nico Douga). And you maybe notice that in the end of the video, the guy changes “Ha” (は) into “Wa” (わ). Well, in a real life situation, even though Watashiha was written as “わたしは”, it’s usually pronounced “Watashiwa”, or “わたしわ”. Keep in mind that your VOCALOID is singing every word you type, he/she doesn’t read it and make necessary changes by its own. Also keep in mind that the “Ha” (は) and “Wa” (わ) case is different with the “He” (へ) and “E” (え) case. If you want to be sure, just sing the song by yourself and type what you hear from your mouth. My explanation just now might be confusing, so here’s an example of what I’m talking about. This is a part of the lyrics from CLANNAD’s opening theme, メグメル ～Cuckool Mix 2007～.

風のような微かな声が

Now, so that we could understand it better, let’s romanize it.

kaze no you na kasuka na koe ga

When you enter the lyrics just like that on the VOCALOID editor, your VOCALOID would sing it like this:

kaze no yo-u na kasukana koe ga

Well, you (よう) is usually pronounced as a longer version of yo (よ), but your VOCALOID would emphazise the u (う) part. So it’s better to just write yo (よ) in the VOCALOID editor, and then drag the note to show that it’s pronounced a bit longer.

Here’s another example of what I’m talking about, still from the same song. Note that this example is only applicable when you input the lyrics in hiragana or katakana. I don’t think you’ll get this problem when typing the lyrics in romaji, but if I’m wrong, please tell me in the comments below.

残さず伝えて きっと

Let’s romanize it again (for reference).

nokosazu tsutaete kitto

Enter the lyrics just like that on the VOCALOID editor and your VOCALOID would sing it like this:

nokosazu tsutaete kitsuto

Now, the kitto (きっと) part have been read by the VOCALOID editor as kitsuto (きつと). Why? Because usually, the っ indicates a small pause in a normal word, but in the VOCALOID editor, your VOCALOID reads it as a big tsu (つ).

So before entering the lyrics, think about those two examples for a while and change your lyrics where suitable for the VOCALOID to sing it. Now, go ahead and make a great song with your VOCALOID!

70 thoughts on “VOCALOID Tutorial – Entering the Lyrics”

What do you mean by putting a small “tsu”? =x
Let’s take a look into that matter. For example, the lyrics are “kitto” (きっと). Just write “kito” (きと) on the VOCALOID editor (ki (き) and to (と) on a separate note). And then, drag the “ki” (き) note to make it pronounced longer. And then change the Vibrato property at the end of the “ki” (き) to make it sound like “ki-i-to”. If you have any other problem just ask. =)
If you want to make it sound more human, you may need to change the whole note property, changing all of the parameters in the bottom proportion of the VOCALOID editor. I might make a blog post about it later on if anyone wants me to do it. ^w^

I just got to ask, does User Word Dictionary have anything to do with lyrics? My cousin on another country input some lyrics but still came-out as a’s. I don’t use VOCALOID much since I only like to listen to Miku sing so I can’t really help her.
If it does, then would you kindly post tutorial or something about it?
Sorry about grammar. I’m Japanese on a vacation with my cousins.

@Misa: I don’t really understand what’s the User Word Dictionary, but to input the lyrics, you’d have to input pronunciations that a VOCALOID can speak, such as “a”, “sa”, “ki”, and others. If a VOCALOID can’t speak it, such as when you type in “kk”, “tt”, “t”, “l”, and others (remember that the VOCALOID I’m talking about here is the Japanese VOCALOID), it’ll come out as “a”s. If you’d like me to post a tutorial on anything VOCALOID-related, just post a comment in here about what you’d like to know, and if I could, I’ll make one. =3
Don’t worry about your grammar, I can read some Japanese, so you could post your comment in Japanese here if you want to =D
(although, writing Japanese is another thing for me T^T)

Thank you for your concern. Unfortunately I cannot type in Japanese as the computer I am in is from the Pearl of the Orient. Yes, I am taking a vacation in the Philippines with my cousins, so I cannot type in Japanese.
My cousins want to know if is possible to use the User Word Dictionary for other uses. Any use is fine.
The User Word Dictionary

ah, I see, I’ve never used the User Word Dictionary before… I think I’ll play around with it later on. well, this may be right or wrong, but if you register a word in the User Word Dictionary first, you can input that lyric on the main VOCALOID2 editor window. first of all, what do you mean by using the user word dictionary for other uses? I’m sorry, but I couldn’t really understand that ^^;
if you type the word and pronunciation in the User Word Dictionary, and then register it, you could type that word on the VOCALOID2 editor main window. if you still have any questions, feel free to post more, I’ll be very happy to answer all your questions to the best of my knowledge about VOCALOID. =D
so you’re now in the Philippines? I’m in Indonesia, right below it =)

I can’t write japanese, or even have the correct font for doing so on this pc. (Is there a correct font? And if so, where?) In that video it turns text into Japanese characters.. Doesn’t do that for me. Basiclly everything I type turns into [a]. I’m trying to work on getting sounds. When I try to import a midi.. It works only sometimes. I get this error alot, not even in english or japanese. Just random squares and symbols.

When I do import a midi and it works. Say.. Love Hina’s Sakurasaku on keyboard midi. It pulls up a board with a bunch of checks and audio tracks.. most likely the different tracks in the song. They all have solid square lines and/or other symbols, which dont say anything in any language, and all tracks are named the same. On top of that, when I get past that, all the files seem to want her to sing ALL of the different instrument, and seem to have alot of notes at two pitches at once. Again do I get the error message of symbols telling me something about “Voice1” and how it cant sing two pitches at the same time.

When I got the software, I was ecstatic. Turning it into english (changing the single file OR the full transform) doesn’t change the error messages, nor does it stop the program from wanting the g2pa2_JPN.dll file. Giving me yet another error of messages with symbols.

I know it takes quite a bit of editing, but honestly I’ve nowhere to begin. These error messages are telling me what to do, but I wish I knew what they said. Where do I begin fixing these plethora of problems?

Hi! Thanks for stopping by! =D
Firstly, to type or to even view Japanese, you’d have to install the Japanese Language Pack. Most likely that you were using Windows XP, and if that’s the case, you’d need the Windows XP CD to install it. In the video, they’re typing Japanese, but you don’t have to, just type in romaji.
Don’t ever type more than one pronunciation in one pitch note! Try only typing “u” only and see if it changes into [u]. If you type something like “umi”, it won’t recognize it and it’ll stay as [a]. =3
Random squares and symbols meant that you don’t have the Japanese language pack installed. It’s trying to display it in Japanese but it doesn’t have the necessary language pack, so that’s why you’ll just see random squares and symbols. Unfortunately, there aren’t any way to change the error message. They can’t be changed to english, since Crypton made them. The VOCALOID2 Editor Engine was made by Yamaha, and is initially in English, and Crypton translated them in the Vocaloid2_Japanese.dll. You’ll see in my other tutorial that by renaming/changing/deleting that file it will change the program’s user interface back to Yamaha’s original interface in english. But the error messages, like what I just said, are made by Crypton. =x
Importing a MIDI is pretty hard. Especially when you’re importing a MIDI converted from an MP3 or downloaded from the internet. Yes, they’ll contain 2 pitches at the same time. There’s a tutorial about this in Nico Nico Douga (in Japanese), and they say after importing the MIDI and selecting the correct voice track, re-check the entire pitch note for any double pitches and delete them or put them in a new voice track. The VOCALOID technology can’t sing out two pitches at the same time like a Keyboard. Usually, on a MIDI, all the tracks are named the same, this is why most people just create a new MIDI on their keyboard consisting of only one track, to make it easy. So that you don’t have to try out which one’s right. xD
Firstly, what do you want to do? Be able to view the error messages? If you do, install the Japanese Language Pack from the Windows XP CD if you’re running Windows XP. If you want to be able to type in lyrics, check out this great image by aces_of_the_sky. x3http://i287.photobucket.com/albums/ll155/kevinayP/VOCALOID/9b2df06a.png
Feel free to post here if you have any additional details/further comments, I’ll be happy to answer it. =)

Hi, I think you’re indonesian, so can I use indonesian language instead in my next post?

I have several questions :
1. I can’t register the forum, it keep saying fatal error, I did the right math
2. Why can’t I write a word for a note in the program? [like, I wrote : “anata” for one note, and it just sounds “aaa”]

@foxiii: yep, I’m Indonesian, and sure, you could use the indonesian language in your next post… I’ll translate them to english below it so that everyone else can understand =D
as for your questions…
1) What kind of fatal error did you get? Are you sure that you’re registering from this link, not from the forum itself?http://blog.kevinay.com/wp-login.php?action=register
2) You can’t do that… One note is only for one japanese character… For more information, please check out this image.http://i287.photobucket.com/albums/ll155/kevinayP/VOCALOID/9b2df06a.png
3) Just see the image above =3
Any more questions? Feel free to ask =)

Ok, I’ve been trying to put in lyrics for a while now, and I still only get the ‘aaas’. I made sure to insert only the pronunciable syllables (refering to Misa’s guide), one per note… and it still doesn’t work ;^; I don’t know if I’m doing something wrong. Here, have a screenshot. XDhttp://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y162/ShoKyou/vocaUntitled.jpg

I’m using the Kagamine twins version, if that helps. Though I don’t even know how to switch to Ren. D:

Oh, nevermind, I got it working! What I did was changing the files I had changed to .bak back to .dll (except the one that translates the interface). In the commentaries of another tutorial you said you could change them with no prob, but it seems it gets in the way of something. So anyway, just wanted to let you know. 😀
I still don’t know how to switch to Ren, though. XD

@Isuri: unfortunately, there are no way to change the error messages to English =x
@Van: yeah, I had to install BootCamp just for this program xD
@xiao: well, if changing Vocaloid2_Japanese.dll into Vocaloid2_Japanese.bak does translate the program, then there’s no need to change anything else. thanks for the heads up, I never noticed that it’d get in the way of something… DX
I’ll write a tutorial on changing the singer later on along with more tutorials, and I’d have to put the videos up again later on xD
thanks for reading! =)

Hi kevinay Thanks for this tutorial. I was frustrated Miku can only sings aaaa until I read it here that you can only type 1 syllable at a time… Damn I did not know you are Indonesian.. I’m Indonesian too :). I’ll keep talking in English so everybody else could understand what I’m talking.

Sorry this is off topic but I was wondering if you know where to get the .VSQ files for those famous Vocaloid songs such as Melt, Mikumiku ni Shite Ageru, etc for the Vocaloid programs? I think its easier for new people who are trying to learn how to use Vocaloid if we could view those .VSQ files

@sibolu: no problem! =D
ah! when I first got the VOCALOID program I learnt how to use it from a .VSQ file… you could try to search for it in PIAPRO, or just click on the link below =)http://piapro.jp/content_list/?view=audio&tag=%82u%82r%82p
you have to register and log in to download the VSQ/MIDI/mp3 files, though, I’ll make a tutorial on how to do it later on =3
nice to see more indonesian in here x3

@Beckii: MIDI files are separated by tracks. one of those tracks are the “voice track”. the voice track is the track, when imported to the VOCALOID editor, doesn’t have any notes overlapping. so when you import a MIDI into the VOCALOID editor, if the notes are overlapping, then that’s probably the instrumental track, so retry with another track =D
the error message is probably saying that in Voice1 and Voice3, there’re still many notes that overlap. it’s in random symbols since you didn’t have the Japanese language pack installed. x3
if you still have any question or would like to request anything, feel free to go to our forum =)http://forums.vocaloidism.com/

@Razur: you can’t really get Miku to sing in english, unless if you change the phonetics yourself, feel free to ask in our forums
and no, you can’t get the songs into MP3, but you can export it into WAV. you can then convert it into MP3 if you’d like xD

I'm having a horrible time trying to get my lyrics set. Spent a good amount of time with the User Dictionary, but still have to manually put in the phonetics, etc.

I'm working with Rin and Len in the Vocaloid 2 program, and the only syllable that it will sing is "Ne" or the original ah.

But I'm trying to use english lyrics. That might be part of the issue. I'm putting in phonetics for every one using the symbols from the User Dictionary, I've tried changing words etc, and all it likes so far is "a" and "ne". ..What on earth am I doing wrong? It's been…. beyond several hours now XD;;; Still lost.

i cant get miku to say tosou , my program is in english and im trying to type in Japanese pronunciations not characters , so it worked for wa…ta…shi.. but ive tried every version of tosou i can think of to write in , any help id really appreciate it

File Menu > Export > Export to WAV
* Make sure that all the tracks you want included are not muted. Better safe than sorry. ^^;;
* Make sure “Master Track” is selected if you want all of your tracks included in the wav file.

You can install windows on your computer and make a shortcut to open windows as a window like program on your computer. When opened, it usually starts to run like when you turn your computer on and it’s really like you have another computer running at the same time, then you have both windows and whatever you had there. I’ve seen it myself in the past but I don’t know how to.

I just got VOCALOID 3, and am trying to make a cover for MCR’s Welcome To The Black Parade, but I’m having trouble with some of the lyrics, like “father” I’ve tried separating it, but it doesn’t work… plz help!

Hello, I know this is a late comment but… I need help, I’ve recently bought KAITO V3 as my first ever Vocaloid. I sorta know what im doing, but I cant make him sing. I’ll put in a word out of the dictionary they have given me but right beside that word will be [a] and despite the other letters in the box, itll just say “a”. I think I had him say ‘i’, but it came out as “eee” someone please help.

The A in the bracket are the phonetics. Phonetics are the way the vocaloid pronounce the words. There should be an option to switch the phonetics and the lyrics in the view section. The reason your notes are only coming out as “a” may be because the word your using isn’t comprehendable to the Vocaloid. Kaito V3 should have an english vb so try right clicking on the note screen and switching to Kaito english. In a japanese voice bank you basically only type things like “i” (which will sound like ee in a japanese VB), “Su”, “Ko”, and a lot more. In an english Vb it gets complicated, you basically use a BUNCH of phonetics to make them sound out the words. When you put “@” in the phonetics it makes an uh sounds (this is in the english VB only). Look up lots of tuning vocaloid tutorials and BE SURE to look up phonetics for english and japnese. I hope what I said makes sense.

The only thing i’m asking is that how do you put super short notes that are usually used before the actual ‘main’ notes.When I try its always either overlap or separated,they can’t be put together.I’ve fucked around with notes length but still its still nihil

I’m having issues with VOCALOID 4. I have the MEGPOID VoiceBank, and I tried typing a song, but all it did was cause the program to sing “aaa” for the duration of the song. I even made my own dictionary for it to use. But it still went “aaa.” Is there any known fix?